The revision includes a number of key new features, including a new, unified System Status Menu (see image above)that sees previously separate system applets for controlling WiFi, Bluetooth, Volume, etc. grouped under one super-menu.

Greater customisation is also on offer, with the ability to set the background of the lock screen being one oft-requested feature in particular.

Other changes include refined interface elements, new ‘Header Bars’ for applications, several new application previews, and improvements to user settings.

Wayland

3.10 also sees the debut of experimental support for Wayland, the next generation display server. Wayland promises to deliver improved graphics performance and, for the desktop, securely sandboxed applications.

GNOME say that the addition of initial support for the display technology in this release “is an important milestone on the road to full Wayland adoption, and will let developers test their software with Wayland.”

Getting GNOME 3.10 in Ubuntu

While Ubuntu GNOME 13.10, due this October, won’t ship with this release its’ users will be able to update 13.10 to 3.10 by adding a series of GNOME PPAs to their system.